North Carolina Squander Lead Late In Gut-wrenching Loss To Stanford

The North Carolina Tar Heels (14-2, 2-1) faced a reliable roadworthy matchup against nan Stanford Cardinal (13-4, 2-2), arsenic some teams were striving for a connection win.

Here is really nan crippled unfolded pinch conference play starting to power up astatine nan midway constituent of January.

First Half

Playing astatine a fast-paced tempo is precisely what nan Tar Heels want, but some offenses were sloppy to commencement nan game. The only subordinate connected nan tribunal that look poised successful nan opening series of nan crippled was Seth Trimble, who scored 4 speedy points. North Carolina leads 6-5 pinch 15:57 connected nan clock.

The adjacent 5 minutes were a complete flip, arsenic some teams orchestrated consecutive bully looks from nan perimeter. Leading up to nan media timeout, nan Tar Heels had made their past 5 shots, which was nan main logic they owned a 20-13 lead pinch 10:59 remaining successful nan first half. It was a well-balanced onslaught from North Carolina, which had 5 players successful nan scoring department.

For an discourtesy that has been up-and-down complete nan people of nan season, nan first 12 minutes of nan crippled was a practice of really businesslike nan Tar Heels tin be. With 7:40 near successful nan first half, North Carolina leads 31-22 while shooting 57.1 percent from nan field. Stanford's struggles from beyond nan arc - 3-of-9 - allowed nan Tar Heels to people speedy points successful transition.

Similarly to respective games this season, North Carolina would let its force to get backmost into nan game. Stanford would spell connected a 12-6 run, and nan Tar Heels led 37-34 aft starring by 12 astatine 1 point. Henri Veesaar, who had 16 points and 3 rebounds while shooting 5-of-8 from nan field, including 2-of-2 from three-point range, picked up his 2nd foul pinch 3:12 earlier halftime.

It was a disappointing extremity to nan half, arsenic North Carolina entered halftime up 47-45.

Second Half

Caleb Wilson sprung to life, scoring nan Tar Heels' first 8 points of nan 2nd half, forcing Stanford to pain a speedy timeout. North Carolina would unfastened up a 63-51 lead pinch 16-6 run.

Stanford would respond and trim nan shortage to 67-60 pinch 11:34 remaining successful nan game. More importantly, Veesaar picked up his 3rd foul, which could beryllium a pivotal infinitesimal successful nan contest.

Ebuka Okorie and Jeremy Dent-Smith were instrumental successful keeping nan Cardinal wrong striking distance, but Veesaar and Wilson would not let nan Tar Heels to autumn behind. North Carolina leads 79-77 pinch 7 minutes remaining.

Despite Okorie continuing to use immense unit connected nan Tar Heels' defense, Wilson could not beryllium stopped, continuing to beryllium cleanable from nan section successful nan 2nd half, making each 8 shots up to this point. North Carolina leads 85-81 pinch 3:47 near successful nan game.

The Cardinal deed aggregate threes successful nan last infinitesimal of nan game, stealing a triumph astatine location complete nan Tar Heels.

Final: Stanford 95, North Carolina 90

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